Thanks, Jeeves

As many of you have heard by now, in the near future we'll be saying goodbye to our corporate icon of 10 years.

It's funny, when you consider that he's just a static drawing of a butler-ish figure on a website (and that he was very nearly a "wise owl" or a "wizard" rather than a butler), how much the Jeeves character has come to mean for people over the years.

On the one hand, there are people who take Jeeves very literally. They think of Jeeves as the guy behind their searches, a cartoon man giving them answers. Some simply like the character, and tie it closely to the writings of P.G. Wodehouse. Jeeves is what makes the site unique for these people, pure and simple.

On the other hand, there are people who reel back at the very notion of Jeeves, who think he signifies weak technology, slows down the site, and embodies over-commercialization and over promise. They would never use a site that had a butler on it.

The majority of people are ambivalent about the character. But even for these people, Jeeves means something -- a place to go to ask questions -- and in their minds it will be difficult to ever think of him as anything more. (And for those who haven't tried the Ask Jeeves since 1999 or 2000, it meant asking questions and not getting answers.) He was so well-branded during the late '90's and early 00's, he became part of pop culture, appearing everywhere from the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade to Arrested Development. Some even think of Jeeves as representative of the dot-com hype, like the Sock Puppet.

As we've said many times, and many of you have kindly said for us, the search engine today is leaps and bounds better than the old one. Not only are we solid on the basics, but we've also been one of the leading innovators in search. Beyond our differentiated algorithmic search, we have the most differentiated SERPs of the major engines, with Zoom related search, Binoculars, MyJeeves, and Smart Answers all integrated significantly into our pages. Heck, now we even have the fewest ads above the fold of the major engines. Per Keynote, this paid off with the most significant gains in search quality and brand perception between 2004 and 2005 among the major search engines. Per comScore, we’ve also had the largest percentage gains in market share year on year.

When it comes to our product, we're continuously evolving and improving. Our brand deserves a clean break to open people up to seeing how good we are.

So, we're going to take the leap and strike out for a fresh identity, one that fits more with who we've become than who we used to be. One that revolves more around the site, and what it does for our users, rather than around a character.

One thing that won't change with our new brand will be our focus on making search better for real people, from heavy searchers to new searchers. Our best innovations have been inspired by this approach to usability. How do people really search and what tools do they really need to be more effective?

In his purest form, this is what Jeeves always stood for, especially to those who worked here, from the founders onward. And no matter what you thought of him, 10 years is a respectable run. That sock puppet didn't even last two.

So even though you're just a cartoon butler, I want to say on behalf of the employees of Ask: Thanks Jeeves. Enjoy your retirement. Maybe we'll offer skins of the site sometime and you can moonlight as people's butler once again.

Jim Lanzone